July 18
We managed to spend the morning playing tunes and doing very little. We’ve been hard at it since arriving June 25, so having some free time is an occasional necessity. Christy replied to an email that The Cornerstone was loud and mobbed and we didn’t miss a thing. We’ll be seeing he and Clara Monday evening. We thought we’d walk the trail along the Cliffs of Moher but found out that having the car was a detriment. We couldn’t find a place to park it. The locals, quite understandably, are tired of having roads they can’t use because of tourists parking inappropriately. We had no desire to join the mob at the official Cliffs of Moher park. It’s a zoo and all we wanted was a quiet walk along the trail which we’ve done several times. We found no place for the car so gave up. James took us down an increasingly narrow boreen, along farms and open land until we bottomed out not far from the ocean, or so it seemed. We were actually close to a kilometer from the ocean. The wild plants, with all the recent sun have been growing vigorously. We could see a clear trail that others before us had blazed through the fields. Nothing was posted private, keep out, so we followed the path through the burren. Rather than explain the burren I’m including a Wikipedia link. I’ll ask you to donate to Wikipedia if you use the link and find it useful. It relies almost solely on small individual donations to stay online.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Burren
Here’s what we found as we walked towards the sea.
It’s surreal country and not one you walk through inattentively. The limestone fractures easily and even though it is millions of years old the fractures expose sharp surfaces. You can catch a toe if you drag a foot and stumble over rough surfaces. There are potholes and loose blocks of stone as well. Moving through the landscape requires all of your attention.
After dinner we went to all of our favorite spots looking for a session. No luck. Summer in Doolin, Ennistymon and Lisdoonvarna seems to be mostly the domain of solo singers and performers with the occasional session. Back home for tunes.